Shelburne Falls, MA – Linda Robin Pearl Sidorsky, of Shelburne Falls, 73, passed away peacefully on January 5th, 2025 after having spent over three years in hospice care. She will be remembered for her seemingly unlimited capacity to love and care for those around her, and a lifetime spent supporting communities and causes she believed in.
Born in 1951 to Gordon and Rhoda Pearl, Linda grew up in Hartford, CT with her older brother, Howard. After high school, her desire to explore the world led Linda to an Israeli kibbutz, where she met Robert Sidorsky while milking cows, and they fell in love. They would spend the next 53 years of marriage working and raising a family together.
After Linda put Robert through veterinary school working as a lab technician at Purdue University, they ventured to the Hopi Reservation, where Robert took a position as the reservation’s veterinarian. Linda assisted in caring for the reservation animals and volunteered as a doula for Hopi women. In 1981 she delivered their first son, Tivon, at their home on the reservation. They eventually made the decision to move to Western MA. And in 1986, at their home in Shelburne Falls, Linda gave birth to their second son, Misha.
With her unique sense of empathy and ability to comfort individuals and families in their greatest moments of need, Linda supported her local community by co-founding the Birthing Network, an educational organization for pregnant women at life’s beginning, and as an active member of the Jewish burial society, Hevra Kadisha, at life’s ends. Broadening her reach overseas, Linda co-founded the non-profit organization, Ultimate Peace, seeking to foster cooperation and mutual respect by bringing Israeli and Palestinian youth together to play Ultimate Frisbee. And by creating the “Israeli Dialogue Project”, Linda pursued her commitment to facilitating peace and understanding within her local community.
Above all, Linda was a profoundly dedicated mother and grandmother. Her passion for promoting the development of children around her extended beyond Linda’s immediate family. Whether it was as a Director of the Board at the Greenfield Center School, as a dorm parent at Northfield Mount Hermon High School, nursing veterinary patients at the clinic or raising rescued baby racoons in her home, Linda was truly a mom to many.
Linda leaves her two sons, husband, two precious grandsons, Gordy (9) and Charlie (7), her brother Howard, and an enormous community of dear friends. She has been profoundly missed.
A fund, in her name, at Temple Israel, Greenfield, Ma. has been established as a way to honor and continue her work bringing individuals together to find common ground and shared values. Donations are welcomed.
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